(excerpt..)
The Israeli government’s decades long strategy to annex as much of the West Bank as possible is close to fruition.
By employing force and a series of subterfuges (building permits – parks – military installations – armed settlers) – the Israeli government has managed to concentrate Palestinians in the West Bank into dense isolated pockets.
Exclusively Jewish-Israeli settlements circle these areas.
Isolating Palestinian communities into small pockets cut off from each other is a calculated effort to destroy the Palestinian economy and culture.
The entire apparatus of the Israeli state works relentlessly to undermine Palestinian freedom of movement.
This has reached its zenith in Gaza – where an entire generation has lived its life confined to a 140 square mile area – isolated from the rest of the Palestinian population – from towns and places that used to form an integral part of their lives.
Things are hardly better in the West Bank.
Palestinians seeking to travel outside of their small towns have to contend with a network of Israeli ‘checkpoints’ designed to humiliate them.
They are often staffed with belligerent soldiers who are fully aware that a system of impunity will protect them from any repercussions when they abuse Palestinian and even if they kill them.
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